Trent Reznor: ‘Radiohead inspired me to return to a major label’

Trent Reznor has said that an incident involving Radiohead led him to rejoining a major label.

The Nine Inch Nails frontman has been releasing music to fans directly on the internet in recent years but has decided to release the first EP from new project How To Destroy Angels via Columbia in November.

Speaking to Talking Heads frontman David Byrne at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles last night (October 14), Reznor admitted that never seeing his music in record shops was getting him down.

Reznor told his host:

We're playing in Prague, but I see flyers up for Radiohead, who are playing the same place we’re playing, six months from then. Then I walk into the record shop, and there isn’t a section that says Nine Inch Nails.

Reznor went on to explain that he feels losing a level of control to a label is worth the increased exposure an international company can provide a band.

"It was, one, to have a team of people who are better at that [marketing] than I am, worldwide... that felt like it was worth slicing the pie up monetarily," he said, adding: "So far it's been pleasantly pleasant."

Reznor left his last record label, Universal, in 2007 saying that the company was overpricing his albums. How To Destroy Angels release their 'An Omen' EP on November 13.